russell



@uitrit gieten 'I ige-tritt @frn W. W. ROWLES AND A. J. RUSSELL, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

Laim Patent No. 75,983, dans More?. 24, 186s.

IMPROVED INVALID-BEDSTEAD.

tlgc Stigehuls referat tu it tigen ttttcts hneln mit mating glatt nf tinta-mc.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONERN:

Be it known that we, W. W. ROWLES and A. J. RUSSELL, of the city and county of Baltimore, and State of Maryland,hme invented a new and improved Invalid-Bedstead; and'we 'do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, `and exact description of the same, sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to which our invention appertaius to make use of it, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a top view.

Figure 2, a detached 4portion in elevation and section.

Figure 3, another detached portion similarly shown; and

Figure 4, a view showing the operation of the key or wrench in tightening the sheet; and

Figure 5 is a cross-section. Y

VThis invention is an apparatus which may be attached to any bedstead, and by means of which a. sick person may be gently raised and removed fromthe bed and returned to it again, without heilig caused any pain, when it is necessary that the bed should be made, or the clothes changed.

The principle ofthe invention consists in employing, in connection with the ordinary bedstead, a supplementary one, upon `which the patient can be lifted up from the bed. The patient having been thus raised, that part'of the supplementary apparatus which supports him can be run out sideways from the bed, removing the sick person entirely therefrom, and enabling the attendants to change the clothes, dto., as conveniently as though no one were occupying the bed.

In the drawings, the ordinary bedstead is represented by A A, and the bed by B. Qver the bed, between the head-board and foot-board, is placed the supplementary bedstead, the legs of which are shown by C C, the

sides by C1 C, and the head and foot by Cz C2. The cross-bars which compose the head and foot of the sup,

plementary bedstead, extend across slightly above the bedstead A A, and just inside of vits headboard and foot-board, as shown clearly in g. 1. The supplementary bedstead, as so far described, is designed to remain always in the position shown in lig. 1,'its oice being to support the apparatus hereafter explained.

Another frame, the front side of which rests upon two posts D D, which travel to and from lthe bedstead A A, upon casters or 4trucks c c, and the rear side of which is supported upon short posts E E, which slide back and forth upon the pieces C2 C? of the supplementary bedstead, serves directly to furnish the means for raising and moving the invalid. This frame consists of a side-bar, F, which connects and sten-dies the two front legs D D, four double metallic standards E E E E', the first two of which havegrooved feet, and slide along the rails()2 C2, and the last two of which are xed permanently upon the top of theposts D D. Two crossfbars G G, which connect the tops of the standards E E to the tops of' the opposite standards E E', and two adjustable side-pieces H I, the -former connecting the standards E E together, and` the latter the standards E E. These side-pieces support a sheet, J, upon which the patient lies, and upon which he is raised and moved from one position to another without disturbing his repose.

We will now describe more minutely the construction and operation of the parts which raise and lower the sheet J, and move it from side to side at pleasure. The metallic standards E E lE E" are made with two vertical parallel posts, resting upon a solid base, and resemblein appearance a musicians tuning-fork, the prongs pointing vertically upward. Between the two posts of each standard, a metallic' socket, K, slides up and down, supporting the ends ofthe side-pieces H I. The sockets K K K K are moved up and down upon vertical screwrods L L, which pass through them, and are operated by wrenches or nuts L L', above the cross-bars Gr G. Thus the side-bars H I, and with them the sheet J and the invalid upon it, maybe raised or lowered at pleasure' by simply screwing the sockets K K up or down. The sockets K are made with a horizontal groove, c

. extending inward towards the bed, in which the tenons of the side-pieces H I rest, along which they may slide thus allowing the side-pieces to be adjusted towards or from each other, so as to increase or diminish the tension of the sheet J held between them. A horizontal screw-rod, M, having a nut or wrench, M', operates to move them in or out, and hold them rmly nplace, in the same manner that the rods L L move them up and down.

Thesockets K K may be elongated laterally, to allow greater length to the grooves, and increase the movement of the side-pieces.

The apparatus as thus constructed, fully provides the means for raising' rand lowering tlie'invalid, and for moving him off of the bed and returning him to it, without disturbing him in the slightest degree. Ordinarily, while he is reposing on the bed, the side-pieces H I are lowered down, and caused to approach each other, so as to slackcn up the sheet J, and to allow the whole Weight of the invalid to be supported by the bed B, as in any other bedstead. When it is necessary to make the bed or change the clothes, the side-screws M M may be' started a little, so as to draw the sheet J a little tighter, and then the sheet, with the patient uponit, covered with his blankets, Ste., as usual, may be raised as above described. When he has been raised sufficiently hight0 clear the bed beneath him, the frame is run forward upon the casters c c and sliding posts EE, until it assumes the position shown in figs 1 and 5. The necessary operations may thus bc performed, after which the' patient may be returned to his couch byl reversing thc action ofthe frame and screws.

In order to increase the adjustability of the frame and sheet, we make one of the side-pieces I in the form' of a roller, bearing in sliding blocks which run in the grooves 7c c, as above described, and provided with a' ratchet and pawl, N, to hold it from unrolling. We attach one side of the sheet to this roller by loops which fasten over pegs z'z' upon the roller. The tension of the sheet may then be increased or diminished at pleasure,

by means of the roller. If desired to stretch it very tight, the key or lever O, shown in iig. 4, maybe employed in addition to the roller. The edge of the sheetJ that comes in contact with the roller,isdeeply serrated, the ,loops jj being at the salient anglesof its outline. At the re-entrant angles, another series of loops not, is fixed. By setting the lever O upon the roller, as shivn in fig'. 4, andcatching its hook o into one and another of the loops n n, after. the roller has stretched the sheet as far as possible, it may be tightened s'till further. This operation will be clearly understood from an inspection of fig. 4. 'lhe opposite edge of the sheet is looped and hooked over a set of hooks, m m, arranged along the inner surface of the side-bar H. The hooks m m may also be used in tightening the sheet, if attached with screws and nuts, as shown atm m', fig. 1.

With an apparatus thus constructed, the sheet J itself may bevery easily changel under the patient, without the i'iecessity of removing him, and without any very great inconvenience to him. It will be only necessary to screw up the apparatus until itvclears the bed B, in order that the attendants may have roorn to operate, and then taking a fresh sheet, similar to sheet J, roll it up and place it across thc head or foot of the bed.- When it is in this position, unbutton or unhook one loop n, and one, m, nearest to the end ofthe sheet J, and hook on in their place the corresponding loops of the fresh sheet. i Then unhook the next loops, andhook in their place the corresponding loops of the .fresh sheet, and so on until the old sheet is entirely' removed and the new one substituted in its place, without moving the invalid. It will be observed ythat during this operation, the attendants do not have even to touch the patient, all their work being performed at the edges of the sheet upon which lie lies. It will also be observed lthat during the whole operation, nearly the entire length of the patient is supported upon the two sheets, a part resting upon one sheet and a part upon the other, and the sheets being so gently and gradually changed, that he suffers no considerable inconvenience therefrom. 'lhus by the use of this improved apparatus, all the clothes upon the bed may be changed, aired, or adjusted in any manner, with; out disturbing the invalid so much as to cause him any annoyance or inconvenience of any importance.

1t may be observed herethat the key or lever O may be used for unlockingr the sheet from the roller, should its' loops jjlbe drawn too tight to slip easily off of their pegs, or should the roller be sc turned as to bring the loops under it in an inconvenient position.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. We claim the supplementary bedstead C Cl C2, when used in combination with the bedstcad A A, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. We claim the laterally-sliding frame, composed of the end-pieces G G, land vertically-adjustable sidepicces H I, Supported upon the sliding standards E E, and the posts D D running upon .trucks e c, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. We claim, in combination with a laterally-sliding frame, as above described, a. roller, I, for the purpose of holding and adjusting one side of the supporting-sheet J, substantially as described.

4. We claim the sheet J, having one serrated edge looped, as shown atj'j, n u, substantially as and for the purposes set forth. i

5. We claim the forked lever O, having the hook o, substantially as and for the'purposes shown.

' W. W. ROWLES,

A. J'. RUSSELL.

Witnesses:

O. A. SMITH, D. BRIDE. 

